


Shiftings

by Chazzam



Series: Shiftings [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-03
Updated: 2014-05-03
Packaged: 2018-01-21 19:13:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1561013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chazzam/pseuds/Chazzam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The shift in their relationship didn't come out of left field at all. Beneath the surface, things had been changing all along.  This fic takes place right after The Kiss in Original Song, and is full of fluffy season 2 feels.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story is the very first fanfiction I ever did write, and is the first fic in a series chronicling Kurt and Blaine's journey from friends to more-than-friends, and through various levels of intimacy that followed. Please note that all of the Shiftings fics were all written before season 3 aired, and most were written before the season 2 finale. Clearly, my idea of how fast Klaine's relationship would move (not to mention their level of comfort with public displays of affection) was very, very different from that of the showrunners. ;)

Kurt Hummel couldn't sleep. He knew he should; Regionals were only days away, and he needed his beauty rest. Try as he might, though, he couldn't wipe the wide, silly grin off his face. He touched his lips for the hundredth time that night. Mere hours before, Blaine's lips had been there.  _Blaine's lips._  Kurt yanked the spare pillow from beside him, thrust it over his face, and screamed into it, kicking his legs hard.

He still couldn't believe it had been real. Part of him was still convinced it wasn't. So for the hundredth time that night, he got up, turned on his bedside lamp, and went over to his vanity. He both saw and felt himself blush scarlet when he saw the small but distinct purple mark low on his neck, near his collar bone.

Yeah, it had been real.

And another thing that was real was that Blaine wanted him. Blaine lov- well, liked him, anyway. And the kicker was that it had happened when Kurt had finally stopped trying to impress Blaine. He had finally stopped trying to figure out how to change for him, how to seem as perfect as possible for him.

It had started, clearly, when Blaine had announced his intent to go on some charade of a date with Rachel. That was it, Kurt was sure of it. That's when Blaine had begun to fall from grace in his eyes. That fall only affected Kurt's feelings for the boy more painfully, though; as he saw Blaine's struggle, Blaine's desperate grasp at a single straw that represented a chance at normalcy, he only loved him more. He had wanted to hold and comfort him and tell him that he understood how much it can hurt. He had also wanted to strangle him.

But Kurt remembered one thing that had occurred to him, as he seethed alone in the Lima Bean after Blaine had stormed out. In some ways he, Kurt, was stronger than Blaine. Yes, he had fled to Dalton when things got too heavy at public school, just like Blaine had, but Kurt knew that he'd never mistake a drunken kiss for a real connection. He knew that he'd never pass as straight, and he didn't even try.  _Blaine can pass,_ he'd thought to himself.  _And on some level, he wants to. He's clinging to it. He's scared._

Then Kurt had rolled his eyes to himself and snorted into his coffee.  _Although if he really wants to pass, he probably shouldn't storm out of public places like a little fucking drama queen._

They had made up, of course, both pretty sheepish, both owning their own bitchiness in that little scenario. And it had faded into the background as they picked up where they left off, talking about everything (except how they felt about one another), ingesting way too much caffeine, growing always closer.

But something had definitely shifted, and Kurt was acutely aware of it, though he wasn't sure whether or not Blaine was. Blaine wasn't always the most observant little fucker, this Kurt knew, nor the most self-aware. So Blaine may or may not have perceived the change, but it was most definitely there. The playing field had leveled a bit. Kurt was no longer looking up to Blaine (figuratively speaking, of course), he was looking  _at_ him. He was looking at the beauty and the confidence and the insecurity and the imperfections. And Kurt realized that he hadn't really loved Blaine before, not really. He had idolized and adored him, but he hadn't really seen him clearly enough to love him.

But now? Now Kurt was falling. Hard.

The next time things shifted, it was Kurt who was the vulnerable one. Kurt who exposed himself, his fear and confusion around sex. It had hurt when Blaine had essentially told him he wasn't sexy – or so Kurt had interpreted it - and Kurt was shocked at his own response to that pain. He was shocked that he admitted how intimidated he was, how attached to unrealistic notions of romance, shocked that he had even let himself discuss the subject at all.

He most certainly was not shocked when he kicked Blaine out of his room. He didn't want to have that "conversation" with Blaine. Because he knew that Blaine had never had a boyfriend, but Blaine had never said that he hadn't had sex before. And Kurt was surprised enough that a boy as ridiculously foxy as Blaine was still single. He didn't even want to think about Blaine touching anyone else. Even the memory of him kissing Rachel had led Kurt- more than once- to rip the Xbox controller out of a startled Finn's hands so he could play a couple rounds of Grand Theft Auto until he calmed down.

So yeah, the topic of Blaine with another guy was  _definitely_ not up for discussion.

After Blaine had left his room, Kurt had curled up in a ball on his bed, humiliated, feeling very small and thin and pale and young. Feeling awkward as a twelve-year-old. He had not tried to impress Blaine at all, had laid himself open. He had not-so-subconsciously hoped that Blaine would reassure him that he  _was_  sexy. That Blaine would challenge him when he said he said he didn't have any sexual experience  _or appeal._ Blaine hadn't.

But Blaine hadn't really said that he wasn't sexually appealing either, not really. He had just said that Kurt's "sexy faces" while performing weren't hitting the mark. After a little while, Kurt began to worry about what Blaine must think of him now. Kurt had totally dropped his composure, and it seemed he had blown what last little hope he had of ever being more than friends with Blaine. If Blaine still even wanted to be his friend after that bitchy little display.

Kurt sighed, and stared at his ceiling, and eventually picked up his phone to check the text message that had arrived a few moments earlier.

It was from Blaine.

_I'm really sorry if I made you feel uncomfortable. I hope you're not too angry with me._

Kurt smiled. So maybe dating was out, maybe they were only ever meant to be friends, but Blaine still cared about him, still wanted his friendship, and that meant the world to Kurt.

_I'm not mad. I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have reacted like that. It's just a really sensitive subject for me, I guess._

_I understand. Are we all right?_

_We're just fine._

And again, that was that. Things had shifted, but again it seemed to be for the best. Kurt found himself even more comfortable with Blaine, despite the awkwardness of their non-discussion about sex. Not only was he seeing Blaine as more of a real person, but he was letting himself be more of a real person again too, the way that he had when they first met. Really, Kurt was over this whole Changing Himself For Other People thing. He still loved Blaine - unfortunately he only seemed to be falling more in love with him, but he had finally decided to just have his feelings and let things be. After all, it wasn't like he didn't have plenty of practice at this. He had never had a boy return his feelings before, and he had always managed to soldier on.

Without the pressure to impress, Kurt was more honest. More himself. More relaxed.

He finally told Blaine how he felt about his never-ending series of solos, instead of swooning like a little fangirl. That felt good.

Even more significantly, he showed Blaine – well, showed the entirety of the Warblers - his heart. He let down his defenses, and didn't even try to act cool when Pavarotti died. He lovingly pulled one of his most cherished possessions from a locked wooden box at the back of a hidden drawer in his vanity- it was an audio tape of Beatles instrumental music. He and his mother had sung to it together when he was very small, and he usually only took it out on her birthday and the anniversary of her death, so he could sing to her.

He wanted that tape to last as long as possible. But today he would take it out for Pavarotti.

Kurt didn't have to ponder too deeply to understand why the little bird's death was affecting him with such intensity. He knew that the bird had, on some level, represented him. Pavarotti had lived in a cage – safe, cared for, but entrapped. Life at Dalton felt similar; safe but stifling, and though Kurt felt content enough to spend some time healing in that soothing little den of conformity, he certainly wasn't going to let his true self die in a cage like Pavarotti had.

He was going to reclaim a piece of his individuality, however small and fleeting. Damn the Warblers, damn Wes and David and Nate and Jeff and  _Blaine,_ Kurt was going to do what he had always done in New Directions. He was going to walk in there, and he was not going to ask them for anything. Instead, he was going to  _tell_ them that he was singing a song for Pavarotti. For this little kindred soul. And they could harmonize in the background or they could shut the hell up, it didn't really matter either way, because he was going to do this.

And so he did.

He strode in, out of uniform, and he demanded a moment in the spotlight, and he let the tears flow free, to hell with impressing anyone, and he even got in a little jab at Blaine before he started, which was probably pretty bitchy, but he didn't even care anymore, because that was who he was and the bitch is back, and if you don't like it Mr. Anderson, you can take a long walk off a short pier.

And he sang. And Blaine saw him. And the next time that they were alone together, Blaine said beautiful things to him, and then Blaine kissed him.

Kurt slowly came back to himself, staring at the not-so-subtle hickey on his neck that Blaine had produced between kisses and nuzzles and half-assed, raced-through renditions of  _Candles_  the night before. They had forced themselves to practice the song just barely enough to feel justified in spending half the afternoon and into the evening wrapped around each other, melting into one another, burning to touch and sigh and gaze and hold without stopping for the rest of their natural lives.

Of course they'd had to stop. And now Kurt Hummel couldn't sleep. He didn't care. He couldn't wait for tomorrow. Because tomorrow he would get to kiss Blaine again.


	2. Chapter 2

Blaine Anderson hadn't slept. Well, maybe a little- he knew he had kissed Kurt the previous day, but he was pretty sure that some of the things he was remembering from the night before hadn't actually happened in waking life. He felt himself blush as he added a single word to that thought.

Yet. Those things hadn't happened  _yet._

The few days that had elapsed between seeing Kurt perform  _Blackbird_  and getting the balls to actually tell him how he felt had been pure torture for Blaine. It wasn't that he hadn't been attracted to Kurt before that, but Blaine's closely guarded inner world was largely made up of a constant swirl of raging hormones, and he was pretty much attracted to  _every_  cute guy he spent time with. Blaine had just learned to tune it out until he was alone at night with a bottle of lube, that was all. And learning that Kurt maybe kind of liked him  _like that_  on Valentine's day pretty much scared the crap out of him, truth be told. Kurt was a constant. They were so comfortable together, had been comfortable with one another instantly and completely.

He admired Kurt in so many ways – he really didn't want to ruin it just so he could work out some sexual frustration.

Not that he hadn't thought about it.

But Kurt was so smart, and Kurt was so funny, and Kurt was so talented and poised, and Kurt made him feel so safe...and that sense of safety was really too important to risk.

Jeremiah was cute, and he had flirted with Blaine, and he was older, which made Blaine feel kind of sophisticated - even if, let's be honest, there wasn't much sophistication to be had in dating a junior manager at the Gap - Sephora,  _maybe,_  but the Gap? Really now? Blaine could almost hear Kurt's voice as he thought this, and it made him smile.

The truth was, he was never in love with Jeremiah, he just wanted to nail him, but Blaine had been too much of a romantic (or an attempted romantic, anyhow) to admit that to himself. And Kurt had thought that Blaine was planning to ask  _him_  out on Valentine's day because, well...because it was fucking  _logical,_  that's why.

Blaine laughed softly at his own obliviousness. Laughed now, because he had kissed Kurt and Kurt had kissed him back and then kissed him back again and again and again...before that happened, it had been no laughing matter. During those few days between  _Blackbird_  and the kiss that changed his life, Blaine had been kicking himself over it. He'd be thinking of Kurt, of touching him, discovering him, holding him, making him moan...and then he'd realize that he could be doing those things  _right now_  if he hadn't been such a fucking idiot. And now it might be too late.

Before  _Blackbird_ , Blaine was already in love with Kurt. He was pretty sure of that by now. He just hadn't put a name to it at the time. Because he was an idiot. All he had realized at the time was that he liked spending time with Kurt. Loved it, in fact. He thought about Kurt when he wasn't around, and he was pretty sure his eyes lit up whenever Kurt walked into a room. And it wasn't just that. It wasn't just that he wanted to spend as much time with Kurt as possible, he wanted to spend as much time  _alone_  with Kurt as possible.

Blaine had other friends and Kurt did too, but he found himself almost resenting their presence sometimes when they were all hanging out as a group. Not all the time, just...sometimes. Sometimes he just craved a deep and meaningful one-on-one with Kurt so he could learn even more about him, so he could have his full and complete attention.

He had thought it was just because they were  _such_  good friends. They understood each other and had common interests and they made each other laugh...and somehow Blaine had put all of that in a distinct and separate compartment from his physical reactions to his friend. Because their friendship had nothing to do with the fact that Blaine felt a slight jolt whenever he found an excuse to touch Kurt's shoulders or smooth his collar, right? It had nothing to do with how he sometimes zoned out when he should have been studying, just thinking about the shape of Kurt's nose or the color of his eyes. It didn't have anything to do with the fact that Blaine had even had vivid dreams about having sex with Kurt, because Blaine had had vivid dreams about having sex with lots of guys. Wes, even. And Blaine didn't actually want to sleep with  _Wes_.

But then Kurt had walked into the Warblers meeting that day, and he was so sad over that sweet little bird, and it was so real...and he had sniped a bit at Blaine and that was real too, and then he had simply announced that he had something to sing.

Blaine wasn't sure exactly how it had happened. He wasn't even sure exactly  _when_  it happened. All he knew was that between the opening notes and the completion of Kurt's clear and beautiful rendition of the song, everything had shifted. The separate compartments that Blaine had neatly organized Kurt into began to simply pour into one another, and he finally saw the whole package. His dear friend and this beautiful boy were one and the same and Blaine could have been with him all along, could have felt both safe  _and_  loved, and it wouldn't have been cheap and physical – how could he even think that?

 _It's him,_  he realized, surprised that he didn't physically fall out of his seat from the sheer impact of that realization.  _He's the one – It's been him all along._

Their deep and intimate conversations could have been interspersed with deep and intimate affection. He could have already memorized the feel of Kurt's silky skin, the contours of his chest and his back and his...  _I could be kissing those tears away right now, if I wasn't such a moron,_ Blaine remembered thinking to himself.

And then panic had set in. Because, Blaine realized, Kurt had seemed a bit more aloof of late. They were still close, but Kurt seemed less...well, maybe not less interested in spending time with Blaine, no, that wasn't it, just more comfortable spending time apart from him. And Kurt's constant praise of all things concerning Blaine was now peppered with small - though admittedly valid - criticisms.

It made Blaine nervous. He couldn't lose Kurt now, he just couldn't. Hence the idea for the duet. It was perfect, really. It was the perfect excuse to be around Kurt as much as possible, to have him all to himself.

He hadn't planned on telling Kurt how he felt that day. Not exactly. He had planned on singing his heart out, on staring into Kurt's eyes and putting every ounce of love into that performance. He had kind of hoped that Kurt might make the first move, or that maybe singing the song with him would give Blaine enough courage to do it himself. Music was safe. Singing to him was definitely the way to go. But when Kurt asked him, point-blank...

He hadn't known what he was going to say or do. But Kurt had his number, and he wasn't letting Blaine off the hook this time, and his eyes were so pure and he demanded nothing but the same simple honesty that Kurt had always offered him, and Blaine just closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and went for it, stumbling over his words in a desperate attempt to express some small fraction of what he was feeling.

When he leaned in to kiss Kurt he did so slowly, his heart pounding, attempting to give his friend every opportunity to stop him, to object, to say it was all just too little too late...but then Kurt simply tipped his head to the side and parted his lips, and there was no hesitation at all, and Blaine felt like he was going to burst into tears, because he'd never been this happy before and he had never done anything that felt so perfect in his life.

Blaine slowly came back to himself as he felt something warm pressed into his hand. He blinked rapidly, and realized that he had walked into the Lima Bean but hadn't actually gotten into line and ordered anything. He had just drifted to a table and sat down, lost in his sleep-deprived reverie over Kurt. A reverie so intense, in fact, that it took him a moment to realize that Kurt was actually sitting next to him instead of simply continuing to present himself as a radiant picture in Blaine's mind.

The warmth in Blaine's hand was the medium drip coffee that Kurt had gotten for him. Given his exhaustion, he would have gotten an extra-large had he remembered to order anything at all, but he was so freshly touched by Kurt's intimate knowledge of his coffee order that he wouldn't have traded that particular medium cup of coffee for anything in the world.

He gazed over at Kurt and smiled stupidly, his vocal chords suddenly and completely arrested. Kurt smiled back just as goofily, and Blaine noticed that he was looking pretty tired too.

He also noticed that Kurt was sitting directly beside him instead of across from him as usual.

"I...um, I was going to come over and say hi when I first got here, but you looked like you were thinking, and I didn't want to interrupt," Kurt said, blushing hard as he looked at Blaine.

"I was thinking about you," Blaine replied, and lightly touched Kurt's hand on the table, stroking his fingers.

Kurt dropped his eyes from Blaine's, blushing an even deeper crimson, but raised his fingers slightly, intertwining them with Blaine's. Blaine had never seen Kurt look so shy. He decided that it was painfully adorable, and he wanted to see even more of it.

"I barely got any sleep last night," Blaine continued. "I...I think yesterday might have been the best day of my life." He put down his coffee and used the hand that wasn't playing with Kurt's fingers to gently touch him under the chin and lift his face so that Kurt was looking into his eyes again.

"Because of you," Blaine added in a whisper, and Kurt inhaled sharply, his eyes beginning to shine with tears.

Blaine let his hand fall from Kurt's chin. "Don't cry, Kurt," he breathed softly. "I'm sorry if I'm being too..." Kurt's eyes widened and he shook his head firmly.

"No, Blaine, no...I just..I..I mean, me too. I just can't...it's not too much. I still just can't believe it's real."

Blaine smiled and cupped Kurt's cheek. Kurt closed his eyes and sighed into the touch. Blaine then leaned in and kissed Kurt delicately, lingering and savoring the sweetness of it as their lips slowly worked together, surer than they had been yesterday, but with just as much electricity.

They were in the middle of a crowded coffee shop and at this point they were probably going to be late for school, but neither boy cared, as the kiss deepened and Blaine felt Kurt's fingers threading through his hair. The fingers of his other hand were still interlaced with Blaine's on the table, and they stroked one another with a slow and almost-innocent sensuality. The outside world had ceased to exist. Blaine pulled back just far enough to speak, his lips still slightly brushing against Kurt's as he did so.

"It's real," Blaine breathed, before falling back against Kurt's lips and losing himself all over again.


End file.
